Urban sprawl is increasing, but there are insufficient data available to enable an assessment of the extent to which the re-use of previously developed land is reducing pressures for development on virgin land.

The graph shows development of specific CO2 emissions, defined as emissions of CO2 per transport unit (tonne-km), by freight transport mode (road, rail, maritime, inland shipping) over the period 1995 to 2009.

Starting from 2012, a specific binding CO2 target is calculated for each manufacturer every year based on the average mass of its fleet. For evaluating the progress of manufacturers towards their targets, the EEA is collecting and quality checking data on CO2 emissions from passenger cars registered in all Member States of the European Union since 2010. Using the Member State data, this note provides an overview of the performance of cars manufacturers in meeting their CO2 emissions targets.

Between
2007 and 2008 passenger transport demand in the EEA-32 declined, for the first
time in the 13 years displayed, most likely due to the impacts of the global
economic recession. However, this does little to change the long-term trend;
overall passenger transport demand has grown by over a fifth since 1995. There
is continued evidence to suggest a decoupling between passenger transport
demand and GDP in the EEA-32. However, latest estimates for air passenger
transport within the EU-27 indicate that demand has been growing at a much
faster rate than any other mode of passenger transport.

Specific CO 2 emissions of road transport have decreased since 1995, mainly due to an improvement in the fuel efficiency of passenger car transport. Recent EU Regulation setting emission performance standards for new passenger cars is expected to further reduce CO 2 emissions from light-duty vehicles in view of the 130 g/km and 95 g/km emission targets set for 2015 and 2020 respectively. Specific CO 2 emissions of air transport, although decreasing, are of the same order of magnitude as for road, while rail and maritime shipping remain the most energy efficient modes of passenger transport. Specific energy efficiency of light and heavy duty trucks has improved, but road transport still consumes significantly more energy per tonne-km than rail or ship freight transport.

Passenger transport demand in the EEA-32 continues to grow, but at a slower pace than GDP indicating a decoupling between these two metrics. The latest data shows that since 2002 air passenger transport has been growing at a much faster rate than any other mode of passenger transport.

Trends in air passenger transport demand and GDP. The two curves show the development in GDP and air passenger transport volumes, while the columns show the level of annual decoupling. Green indicates faster growth in GDP than in transport while red indicates stronger growth in transport than in GDP.
Aviation passenger demand data are provisional estimates from the European Commission DG MOVE for domestic and intra-EU27 aviation. GDP data for Lichtenstein is not included as it is not available.
The ratio of annual growth of passenger transport to GDP, measured in 2000 prices, determines the amount of coupling between GDP and transport. The decoupling indicator, depicted by the green bars, is calculated as unity minus the coupling ratio; so a positive score indicates decoupling (i.e. transport demand grows less slowly than GDP), with a negative score showing the opposite (i.e. transport demand outpaces GDP growth)